When you think of a person who fights for either a hobby or career, the stereotypical label that comes into mind is that they are aggressive. While we are, it doesn’t mean that we don’t have a heart. In fact, for over five years, there have been people who have competed in this one tournament, all in the efforts to battle cancer. Jon and Becky Thomas have created a team to become the first nonprofit Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament to raise funding and awareness for cancer fighting organizations known as “Tap Cancer Out”. For each year they held tournaments, they had at least an 80% pass through rate. In other words, they donated 80% of their funds and needed the other 20% for the operation of their tournaments. Incredibly, they have only used $0.10 for every dollar they received to run the event. Just last year, they reached their highest donations at $236,000, all donated to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. You can actually check out the reports and intricacies of each tournament of each year of their donations at: http://www.tapcancerout.org/about/annual-reports/.

“Tap Cancer Out” has held five events in San Diego, Connecticut, Buffalo, Philadelphia, and Massachusetts. Only two tournaments are left in the calendar year and we can all help by donating to each tournament. The next location and event is at the United Sports Fieldhouse on 1426 Marshallton-Thorndale road, Downingtown, PA, on September 23rd. The last event will be on November 18th at St. John's Preparatory School Athletic Center, 72 Spring St. Danvers, MA. If you are not a competitor, but would like to help, you can donate up to any amount for this year’s recipient to the Translational Research Grant donated to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. For those interested competing, there are even prize perks you win if you raise a certain amount of donations. For example, if you raise $250, you will compete for free. At certain points, you get t-shirts, sweet hoodies, rash guards, and even a BJJ kimono! There can even be locals who donate their own unique prizes, so you never know what prizes you can get each time. The child competitor, the adult competitor, and the team who raises the most donations, will each get an award. We competitors also always love support too, so coach and spectators’ tickets cost only $5 for the Philly event and is free at Danvers.

So who can compete? Anyone. Children, teens, and adults all can compete at any of these wonderful events, the best part is that you get to fight for a cause. Even brown and black belt can compete for free, but if you are like me who wants to compete, but aren’t a high rank, the pre-registration rate is only $70. Typical tournaments easily run up to $80-$100, so you know this is pretty inexpensive. This is a Gi only event so I better start training my grips and judo throws. There is so much information such rules, weight divisions, directions, and schedules that you can see all of it here: http://www.tapcancerout.org/.

“Tap Cancer Out” also allows schools to host Grapplethons. These events are usually where people can grapple like it’s a marathon or have mini-seminars. Yes, the same here goes for the prize perks and donation process. So I’ll see you on the mats and wish me luck on the fight. OSS!